Thirty miles south of London and half way to the South coast of England lies an area of outstanding natural beauty combined with a fascinating history called the Weald. This was, to the Saxons of 900AD, part of Andredesweald (the forest of Andred the Roman fort at Pevensey), that stretched from the marshes of Kent to the New Forest in Hampshire - 120 miles long and 30 miles wide. The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex encompasses the Lancaster Great Park formed in 1372 and renamed as the Ashdown Forest in 1672.

This site catalogues the people, places, maps, drawings, engravings, books, writings and numerous lists and directories that are over 70 years old into an integrated database of information about one of the most attractive parts of England - The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. In addition, the site and its many contributors have derived extensive familial relationships and pedigrees which can be of great use for genealogical study and research. Where appropriate, the viewer should verify the information presented by consulting the original sources that are noted at every point on this site.

The navigation bar at the top of this page (and every page on this site) give access to all of this information. Records can also be searched for from this page or from the dedicated search page.

Latest additions to the web site:

Barrow family records by Geoff BarrowBarton, Shelley and Iden family records by Don Lloyd and Kathryn SmithBourner family records by Cathy BournerBarton family recordsMarchant family recordsPage/Paige family recordsPratt family recordsRotherfield 1839 Tithe map and apportionments

Submissions by contributors, records from the 1841 through 1911 census
and Parish records from 1550 for the selected surnames listed above have been cross referred to establish their genealogical pedigrees.
These are being continually enhanced and expanded as new information and research becomes available.

The records of a further 7,500 surnames are also made available for reference purposes.

Maps of the Weald commence in the 16th century courtesy of the Buckhurst Terrier and other historical sources. The 18th century sees the beginning of detailed 1 inch to 1 mile maps and this site records the Richard Budgen maps of 1724, the William Gardner and Thomas Gream maps of 1795, the Christopher and John Greenwood maps of 1825 and cross refers these to the 6 inch to 1 mile Ordnance Survey maps produced in the 1870s and 1890s. Over 300 maps are available on this site.

"This wild tract of Ashdown Forest bears much resemblance to Exmoor;
you may walk, or you may ride, for hours and meet no one; and if black game were to start up it would not surprise you in the least.
There seems room enough to chase the red stag from Buckhurst Park
with horn and hound till, mayhap, he ended in the sea at Pevensey. Buckhurst Park
is the centre of this immense manor. ........... Here and there a house stands, as it seems, alone in the world on the Forest ridge,
thousands of acres of heather around, the deep weald underneath - as at Duddleswell,
a look-out, as it were, over the earth. Forest Row, where they say the courtiers had their booths in ancient hunting days;
Forest-Fold, Boar's-head Street,
Greenwood Gate - all have a forest sound; and what prettier name could there be than Sweet-Haws?
Greybirchet Wood, again; Mossbarn, Highbroom, and so on.
Out­lying woods in every direction are fragments of the forest, you cannot get away from it;
and look over whatever gate you will, there is always a view. ........ Clouds drift over;
it is a wonderful observatory for cloud studies; they seem so close, the light is so strong,
and there is nothing to check the sight as far as its powers will reach. Clouds come up no wider than a pasture-field,
but in length stretching out to the very horizon, dividing the blue sky into two halves;
but then every day has its different clouds - the fleets of heaven that are always sailing on and know no haven"

This site is dedicated to presenting the records of the Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex that are more than
70 years old and in the public domain. It was launched in May 2003 and is continually being updated with more information
about the Weald as it becomes available from transcriptions of Census data, Parish records, Pictures, Photographs, Maps, Books and
many other documents.